LATINOPIA MOMENT IN TIME “TEATRO CAMPESINO & LOS MASCARONES”

This photo shows Chicano theater director Luis Valdez with a combined acting team of members of the El Teatro Campesino theater company (United States) and Los Mascarones (Mexico City) . This historic meeting was between two group of artists from both sides of the border that shared powerful common roots.

The Chicano theater company El Teatro Campesino (The Farm Worker’s Theater) met members of the Mexico City theater company Los Mascarones (The Masked Ones) at the first Chicano Theater festival convened in Fresno, California in 1969. The two companies discovered they had much in common–not only did they address issues of farm worker exploitation but were both grappling with the best way to reach audiences. Both mounted political works not in traditional theaters but in public places–parks, community centers and schools.

In 1973, Los Mascarones, headed by director Mariano Leyba, returned to the United States for a tour of the United States performing at colleges and universities. They had wanted to work with El Teatro Campesino for some time and, with the encouragement of Los Angeles television producers José Luis Ruiz and Jesús Treviño, agreed to collaborate on a film project to be titled “Somos Uno” (We are One).

The documentary of the collaboration included an “acto” taking place in the United States performed by members of El Teatro Campesino and a skit involving Mexican farm workers performed by members of Los Mascarones. The original third act, improvised during the week-end of filming, brought the two storylines together. The final act showed the common struggle of Mexican and Chicano farm workers. and involved actors from both groups. The film was shot over the week-end of June 16th and 17th, 1973 and was later broadcast on the Los Angeles PBS station KCET.

This photo, taken on the afternoon of Sunday, June 17th, 1973, shows Luis Valdez working to bring the improvised third act together.

When my wife Gilda suggested a drive to the Esperanza Vineyard in Sherman, New Mexico, just East of Silver City, New Mexico, I readily agreed. It was a perfect sunny day for such a drive and visit. We had met David and Esperanza Gurulé some time before when they were first starting the Winery. Recently, […]

“Outside Robledo Family Winery, south of Sonoma, on a cool April Sunday, the U.S. and Mexican flags whipped up a stiff salute in the wind blowing off the San Pablo Bay. A third banner bore the winery logo. The flags represent three themes central to the lives of Reynaldo Robledo and many other Mexican migrants […]

Bienvenido to another issue of La Voz Newspaper. Here is what’s on my mind. First, it’s hot outside. Casi no salgo en el dia por el calor. In the summers I turn into a night person. Bueno, so much for the weather. Cambiando de tema Someone asked me the other day why I don’t have […]

New On Latinopia

Angela Roa is a Chilean singer and lyricist residing in Los Angeles, California. Her songs are about the Latino experience in the United States and in Latin America. Here she performs an original song, “Toco Desafinado” (Out of Tune). She is accompanied by Fernando Losada, Rich Silva and Thiago Winterstein..

Gaspar Enríquez is a renowned Chicano artist whose airbrush portraits of barrio youth are haunting and memorable. Drawing from museums and collectors around the United States, in April 2014, the El Paso Museum of Art mounted a retrospective of Gaspar’s art titled Metaphors of the Barrio. Latinopia visited the exhibit and asked Gaspar what inspires […]

The effort to organize farm workers under a union contract has been a long and difficult struggle. In 1965, César Chávez and Dolores Huerta created what would become the United Farm Workers Union. From the onset they faced many obstacles, not the least of which was how to get dozens of California grape growers to […]